character. culture. cuisine.

Month: October 2016

Mid-November will finally bring fall weather to New Orleans and I’ll be more inclined to turn on the oven. Here’s a tease of my Rosemary and Bay Chicken, a warm dish for cool autumn days around the southern family table. Pair it with roasted vegetables, potatoes or rice for a satisfying meal. Recipe to come.… Read More Tease: Rosemary and Bay Chicken

Back in September of this year I spent a wonderful evening with friends from my undergraduate days at LSU. Some of us hadn’t seen each other in many years, but the old affection was still there. Friendship is a tricky business. Try too hard and you smother it. Neglect it and it fades away. But sometimes you… Read More Friends and Foodways: A Rho-union

My friend, LSU classmate and sorority sister, Monica Joseph Butler Johnson, was a woman in a thousand: exuberant, intelligent and the life of every space she ever stepped into. In south Louisiana, it’s not a party unless there’s some seafood pasta, and I humbly dedicate my Pasta Monica to the girl from St. James, Louisiana who embodied everything… Read More Friends and Foodways: Pasta Monica

Five years ago, I was a guest columnist embarking on an interactive weight-loss challenge chronicled in The Washington Post. As we close out National Gumbo Day, I’m sharing “Breaking The Connection Between Food And Emotions”, a piece I wrote during that period about Louisiana’s official state cuisine and the role it played at a pivotal point in… Read More National Gumbo Day

If you still think of cole slaw as that gloopy, depressing, “they could have kept this!” side order from your local fast food joint, you haven’t been paying attention. Slaw is on everything these days, from bahn mi to pulled pork sliders and seafood tacos. My version, Tiger Slaw, pays tribute to LSU’s mascot, Mike VI. It’s purple, gold… Read More Tiger Slaw

A couple of weeks ago, I told my son that LSU’s famous tiger mascot, Mike VI, was dying of cancer. My son was in the middle of doing something, but he stopped short. “What?! But he’s MY Mike. The Mike of my time at LSU.” Yesterday, when I heard the news that Mike VI had… Read More Friends and Foodways – Mike the Tiger

You know a recipe is a hit when your family asks you to make it over and over. Shrimp and Grits is a deeply satisfying dish that lends itself to dozens of variations. This iteration is spicier than Version 1 and will encourage you to experiment with different cheeses and seasonings. This recipe serves 2. What I… Read More Shrimp and Grits, Version 2

My Project

SoulCreole: The Cookbook

This project seeks to preserve and perhaps resurrect a dying facet of modern life: our deep connection to the foods that are a vital part of our identity, our history, our experiences and our cultural future.